A Dark Night's Work

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 372K words
Chapters: 38

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Dark Night's Work by Elizabeth Cleghorn GaskellAuthor: Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2001

Editor's review

A Dark Night's Work is a novella by Elizabeth Gaskell, bearing her characteristic social concern and a vein of moral suspense. The story revolves around a hidden wrongdoing, family reputation, and inner struggle, told with steady pacing and careful psychological detail; it has the oppressiveness and tension peculiar to Victorian fiction. This English electronic edition from Project Gutenberg is a public-domain original, useful as a supplement for understanding Gaskell's work beyond her longer novels. It is relatively compact yet retains her attention to class, duty, and conscience. Readers should note the choices and changes characters make under the pressure of secrets, and how the narrator gradually releases information. Because it is an English original of an early period, its sentence structure and vocabulary pose some difficulty for today's readers; it suits those willing to read slowly and consult background material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy Victorian British fiction
Readers interested in moral suspense and psychological portrayal
Fans of Gaskell who wish to broaden their reading of her work
Learners with some English who are willing to read classics slowly

Not a good fit for

Beginners who need a Chinese translation or extensive annotation
Readers who prefer light, brisk, action-driven books
Readers with no interest in nineteenth-century British social background

Reading tips

Read a synopsis first, then the original text, to reduce interruptions caused by period language.
Note the pace at which secrets are revealed and record the key sentences marking each change in a character's attitude.
After finishing, compare with Gaskell's longer novels to see similarities and differences in her social concern.
For long sentences, first identify subject and predicate, then review the context; keep to a fixed number of pages each day.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this work suitable for readers new to Gaskell?

It can serve as supplementary reading, but if you are entirely new to Victorian fiction, it is better to start with one of her better-known longer novels or a Chinese introduction. The book is short but deals with moral and family secrets, and requires some patience with the period context.

What are the difficulties of reading the English original?

The main difficulties are the longer sentences of nineteenth-century English, vocabulary that differs from today's English, and a slower narrative pace. It is best to read in sections with a dictionary and background material, without chasing speed, focusing on characters' psychology and the unfolding of events.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain e-books; this is its released English original edition, convenient to read and search on electronic devices. It contains no modern introduction or notes, so readers must supply background material themselves.

What is the core appeal of the story?

The core is how a hidden wrongdoing affects characters' fates and family relations, and the author's careful portrayal of conscience, duty, and social judgment. Readers can focus on how characters' psychology changes as the secret gradually emerges, rather than seeking strong external conflict.

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About the author

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 Author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810–1865) was a British novelist of the Victorian era. The library holds 28 of her works, including Cranford, Wives and Daughters, North and South, Sylvia's Lovers, and The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Her writing focuses on daily life in English villages and industrial towns, with a delicate and often humorous touch, and she excels at portraying characters and circumstances across different social classes. Cranford depicts a small-town female community with gentle irony; North and South interweaves industrial conflict between employers and workers with personal feeling; and her biography of Charlotte Brontë is also an important biographical work. Public information is limited, so this note outlines her subjects and style based only on the works held here.